This is probably going to be a rare 'political' non-election post, but I just want to say 'thank you very much' to the voters of PEI

Electoral reform rejected in PEI

Everyone loves the Winston Churchill quote: "Democracy is the worst form of government ever invented, save for all the others that have been tried from time to time". Well, I feel that way about our 'first-past-the-post' (fptp) system. It's not without its flaws and I know it can distort the voice of the voters (I was one of the almost 2 million Canadians who voted PC federally in 1993 to only get 2 MPs out of the deal), but I do find it superior to proportional representation (or PR for short), for two reasons...

1. I like the 'connection' between people and their elected representatives offered by fptp. I know that even under a modified PR system there would continue to be constituency MPs/MLAs (reps) directly elected as before. However, those reps would have peers sitting in the House, simply because they were at the top of a list prepared by their party's leadership. The party list reps don't ever have to pick up their phone and talk to constituents, the only calls they have to take are their leader's. And taking accountability away from reps is not the way to go, otherwise we could just hand it all over to un-elected Judges (but that’s another post!)
2. My other concerns are more pragmatic. PR tends to tends give disproportionate influence to smaller parties who play the kingmaker role, it dilutes a party's policy because those policies get compromised in order to survive, in short it creates a form of government like the one we've endured for 17 months, except that the short-term, 'survive 'til Thursday evening' viewpoint lasts for years. There's no certainty for long range planning if a coalition partner can pull out and leave you high and dry. Sometimes, the really important decisions are also controversial and need time to be proven effective. These decisions almost never happen under a PR system. Do you think that Klein could have accomplished his 1993 reforms, or Mulroney got free trade through (or Douglas got medicare, for that matter) under a PR system?

It's no coincidence to my mind that the oldest continuously functioning stable democracies in the world (the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia) all employ a ftpt system. Yes, it has its flaws but if you want to looked at flawed PR systems in action, you only have to look at Germany taking months to form a government, or the imminent collapse of the government in Israel, and that's just this fall. Or you could look at the New Zealand experience...

Also, one other note to the 'Yes' side supporters, I think it's really bad form to be still complaining about the 60% threshold required for a change after more than 60% of PEI voters cast their ballots against changing to PR...